"After completing the SIT/CELTA course in Kyoto (Summer, 2003), I set up a small, home-based school in Ibaraki City, Japan, and continue to teach there to this day.  The course in Kyoto was a fantastic experience for me.  I remember thinking when we had finished just how much the course had exceeded my expectations.  It has been two years since I officially completed the course, yet all of the notes, articles, charts, discussions, experiences, and professional feedback continue to provide me with a solid source for continued development.  Whenever I need direction or inspiration I turn to my course binder.  The magic of the course, in my opinion, is how it continues to instruct even after we part and go our separate ways."

--Kurt Hartje, SIT/CELTA TESOL Graduate, Kyoto, June 2003

         "I stayed in Costa Rica after I finished the course in February to work at the Sarapiqui Conservation Learning Center and really enjoyed it, although Í ended up not teaching English.  I worked as the coordinator for a high school scholarship program, working with Costa Rican students on conservation projects.  
Even though I ended up not teaching English, I still really enjoyed the course and learned a lot about teaching in general, which has been helpful as I continue to work with students.  I am hoping to pursue a Masters in Education, or Environmental Education, and I'm sure that teaching skills I learned in the course will help me in the future."

-Heather Diamond, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, January 2005

     "I have been meaning to write to you to thank you for getting me started so well on my career path. I am now working as the Lead Teacher in a ESOL program.  Our center has about 220 students and 14 teachers. In the program I coordinate, there are 7 teachers and 135 students. I love my job, it is full-time, with benefits, and I love my co-workers, my boss, and our students. My boss is absolutely fantastic and very committed to helping all of us become better teachers-- and she's an excellent teacher trainer. I'm very lucky to have found this center and my job.
     When I first finished the SIT/CELTA course, I worked two nights a week teaching English and worked another job during the day. After a semester of that,  I started teaching in the afternoons and evenings for one semester, still continuing to work another job that gave me benefits and job security. After one year of that, I started teaching full-time during the day, in a temporary position, and a permanent position in the evenings. I worked really long hours and had no benefits or job security, but I was able to do a lot of professional development. I received my license to teach ESOL in the public schools during this time. After one year of teaching at several different locations, I got my current job. I continually recall [my trainer’s] voice and things that she taught me, and I work to apply those things, and I am still guided by principles I learned in our course. I still return to look at activities we learned in our course, and use them.  I'm really grateful that I was taught so well at my SIT course."

--Christie Mase, SIT/CELTA Program Graduate, Boston, July 2004

     "After completing the TESOL course in Costa Rica I returned to my hometown in Colorado. I was a volunteer for the Literacy Action Program and taught two adult English classes weekly. After the classes ended for the winter, I started tutoring individual students both adults and children. My connection with Literacy Action Program was very valuable for resources and feedback from the folks who run the program. Because of my TESOL training and experience, I was able to enroll in an alternative teaching program (TeachNow) that only requires a year of teaching in a classroom to be licensed. I am working as a student teacher in the same fourth grade classroom that I attended when I was nine years old. I am also the ELL teacher for our school, K-12. The knowledge and experience that I acquired in the SIT course is irreplacable. I would be lost in lesson planning, addressing diverse learning styles, reflecting on my teaching, and would not be surviving in the educational world without the course. I refer back to my notes and the class work continually. And more than anything, I remenisce about my time spent teaching and living in Costa Rica. It was truly a rewarding experience."

--Taylor Dale, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, March 2004

     "The SIT/CELTA program went far beyond my expectations. The program was seamlessly constructed from start to finish, the teaching techniques modeled ceaselessly and the teaching opportunities and group work orchestrated for deep personal reflection and professional growth. I expected to bring home a rich collection of skills and information, and I certainly did. In addition, I brought home an awareness and consciousness of my own approaches in the classroom that I had never seen before, even after 4 years of teaching. For me the course was nothing less than transformational.
     After a summer course, I departed for Hungary in the fall, where I worked in a public elementary school teaching conversational English for the year. It was a tremendous experience. The following year I worked as a secretary in an Italian language school south of Florence and taught five-year-olds English classes.  Currently, I am working on applications for graduate school."

--Julie Morton, SIT/CELTA Program Graduate, Boston, July 2004

 "Attending the SIT TESOL Certificate Course in Costa Rica has been one of the best decisions I have made not only in my academic life, but also in my personal life.  One month in Costa Rica gave me a different and better perspective of teaching English. Most of my duties at work are related to administrative tasks, and I think that to be a good administrator means to be a good teacher. The course helped me to take my English teaching and administrative job to a higher level. I have shared with my colleagues what I learned in the course. They all are motivated with the changes I am trying to implement. They are all motivated because they are also improving their teaching.
     I teach Basic English to students from a B.A. in Educational Sciences. The vision I now have to teach English has produced better results for my students. I have students at the beginning of the semester telling me they are afraid of English or that they do not like it. At the end of the semester, they come to me to thank for what they learned. That makes teaching rewarding!!!!
Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or if you would like to know more about my experience."

--Héctor Mátal, SIT TESOL Graduate, July 2005, Costa Rica
hector.matal@unico.edu.sv

"After taking the TESOL training course in Costa Rica in June 2004, I thought I would start teaching English abroad.  However, as it turned out, I headed off to graduate school in September 2004 to get my Masters in Economics. Despite the fact that I am not “teaching,” I use what I learned in the course almost everyday.  It may be difficult to see how getting a Masters in Economics is connected with attending the SIT TESOL training in Costa Rica, but they are.  One must understand that some of the skills and lessons learned during the course apply not only to teaching, but to life in general.  
     The SIT TESOL training in Costa Rica helped me develop skills in teaching, speaking, listening, reading, writing, grammar, and culture.  But it also taught me a lot about reflection, how to receive constructive feedback, as well as how to give feedback in a positive and productive way.  While attending graduate school, there were a number of times when I sat down and “reflected,” going through the steps I learned in the course.  Now, here in Russia, we are using Reflection almost daily.  
     In the future, I may teach abroad as an ESOL teacher, but maybe I won’t.  Nevertheless, I know I learned many other skills in the TESOL Costa Rica course that will last a lifetime." 

--Christina Davis, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, June 2004

     "I couldn't find an ESL job in my hometown area, so I ended up getting hired as an Educational Assistant in a first grade classroom.  I've been able to use several techniques that I learned from SIT in teaching the children to read and spell.  My thoughts have returned to Speech-Language Pathology, so I'm volunteering in the speech department of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for more exposure, and I'm applying to 3 graduate schools in Boston. My top choice program offers a Reading Specialist certificate, which is what I really want to do.  So even though I'm not using my TESOL certificate directly, I have been able to apply many of the principles to the teaching I'm doing now, and it has definitely helped me narrow down what I want to do in my career.  My experiences practice teaching also helped prepare me for instructing students who are just learning to deal with the English writing system, whether they are just encountering English or are English-speaking but not yet reading/writing (such as my first graders). Having the program set in such a rural, non-North American community was also an incredible learning experience about life in general, and I'm so glad I did it."

--Julia Ramus, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, July 2005

     "I have only good things to say about your program and would recommend it to anyone. What I learned was valuable and empowering. While I am not teaching now, I believe that the skills I learned while on course gave me the confidence needed to secure the job I have now.
     I applied for a job at a foreign language service company, a job I never even knew existed. We organize translation projects for corporate clients - manuals, software, media projects, etc. I am an audio/video producer at this translation company, and my job is to find voice talent for foreign voice-overs. I record projects in all languages: Chinese, Danish, Somali, Arabic, Swahili, Hindi, etc. It is more adventurous than I can say!
     Instead of teaching, I am directing. I direct voice talent in the studio, I organize and manage projects, and I am accountable for the quality of the projects I work on. This job, (although it is working in the corporate world), is in alignment with my value of true communication. But instead of teaching others to speak English, I am helping English speakers to reach the rest of the world in their native tongue. I think this job is best for me right now.
     The skills that you teach: patience, clarity, listening, reflection, analysis, observation (among others) are all skills that I use every day. Thank you for your hard work!"

--Douglas Swenson, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, November 2004

     "What can I say? I studied 8 years to become and English teacher in my country (B.A., Middle Education, and M.A.), and I can honestly say that I learned in a month more about teaching and learning that what I learned in the past. I can even say that as a person, I was born in Panama; but as a teacher I was born in Costa Rica. I am really thankful for the opportunity that I received to give birth to this new teacher that I am now. Now I see teaching and learning with new lenses, and they way I teach has certainly changed for the better. There is no greater satisfaction than to listen to my students do the talking, and the fact that they notice the difference in my classes; building a totally student-centered class is my goal, and I am working on it every single day. My lesson plans are different too, now I use the SIT TESOL format, I even ordered my own set of Cuisenaire's Rods (I can't wait to use them with my students). I really want to apply everything that I learned there: in a place that is now in my heart and mind forever; a place that I'm looking forward to going back to, to show how much I learned and to visit dear friends."

--Eva Ramos, Professor of TESOL at a Panamenian Univeristy and SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, September 2005

  "The SIT course in Costa Rica has been very, very useful in to us at Bluefields Indian and Carribean University. It has served us to rethink and to start remodelling our entire English Program, and has come at the time we needed clarity for the framing of two major projects in our English Department:  a) The designing and implementation of a new career, and b) The bilingualization of new professionals of BICU, which we hope to gradually implement beginning March 2006 "

--Jimmy Henriquez, Head of the English Department and SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, July 2005

     "I have been tutoring executives and their spouses as a consultant to Cendant Mobility Intercultural Services.  It is perfect for me because I have a lot of control over my schedule and I work about 10 hours a week.  I found Cendant through the SIT jobs e-mail service.  The Cendant representative was very impressed with my SIT certificate and after a short phone interview, I was hired.  My students are exceptionally well-educated and motivated to learn.  This is quite a departure from my earlier volunteer work with high-school students, some of whom came to the US at age 18 with only a 3rd grade education.  Actually both experiences have been very rewarding, but in different ways.   I also plan to spend a week or two volunteering in Granada, Nicaragua, tutoring school children in English."

--Susan Klein, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, November 2003

     "The SIT TESOL Certificate Course in Costa Rica was the MOST INTENSE "academic" experience I've ever had, but also the MOST PRACTICAL.  When I completed the course, I felt ready to teach. I returned to my hometown of Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA, and immediately was hired as a substitute ESL instructor for a private adult language school. Within one month, substituting turned into a regular teaching position.  Eight months after the course, I interviewed to run an ESL program on my own for a landscaping company with 20 Spanish-speaking employees from Central America, and five months after that I incorporated my own business!  The Language Hummingbird, Inc. is a workforce development consultant bringing specialized ESOL programs directly to a company's worksite.  We are small and growing, and looking for fellow SIT grads to work with us, because the SIT philosophy of cooperative and reflective learning is what we're all about.  I recommend the course to all teachers, and aspiring teachers, because no matter what your dreams are, this course has the power to propel you beyond them!"

--Nicole "Colie" Ring, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, March 2004

   "After the SIT TESOL course, I moved to Liberia, Costa Rica with two of the other TESOL course participants, where I taught English at OBM Privateacher English program in the evenings and at Jardin de Ninos El Malinche in the mornings. I also ran an English workshop once a week for children in the town. I went to Guatemala for three weeks in June, 2005, where I volunteered at an education project for economically, socially and developmentally at-risk children, a project that is funded by an American woman. I came back to the United States and for two months, I tutored two Afghani families in English literacy and language in New Haven, CT part-time before I got a job in New York City, where I live now. I moved here in Sept and began a job at Bellevue Hospital working as project coordinator for a research study called The BELLE Project: Bellevue project for Early Literacy, Language and Education success. The purpose of the study is to determine whether programs in pediatric care can help children develop the language and literacy skills necessary to succeed in school. Even though I'm not currently teaching English, the TESOL program contributed to my commitment to literacy development in the United States and abroad."

--Margaret Wolff, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, November 2004

     "I attended the SIT TESOL Course in August 2004 and ended up staying for a year teaching English in and around El INVU. I have since returned to the northern California coast and now work as an Aide and Spanish Teacher at a tiny, grade 1-12 charter school.
     The skills and knowledge that I gained from the TESOL course prepared me not only to be successful as a first-time English teacher but also as a teacher of Spanish as I use the same frameworks and activities that I did in teaching English. The course and experience teaching English to Costa Rican adults and children also gave me tools that I use in teaching English-speaking children to read. The TESOL course was an integral step on my path as an educator."

--Kimberly Morgan, SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, August 2004
Resident Teacher, Centro Espiral Mana, August 2004-July 2005

     "I took the TESOL course in June of 2005. I really learned so much in the course and I thought it was an excellent foundation for me as a novice teacher.  After Costa Rica, I began teaching at the Instituto Guatemalteco Americano (IGA) in Guatemala City.  I taught two 3-hour classes beginning at 7 a.m. Saturday mornings.  I taught one class of low-intermediates (all teenagers!) and then substituted different classes after that, which were usually classes of 35-40 extreme beginners.  IGA is a huge language institute so there was a lot of paperwork and a very regimented curriculum.  I didn’t like their textbook materials at all, but found that their teaching methods were very similar to what I had learned in Costa Rica.  They had an excellent resource room with tons of posters and teaching materials.  They also provided me with further teacher training and I was able to take free Spanish classes five days a week.  I really appreciated the benefits since I was only making US$2.50 an hour!  The other great thing about teaching at IGA was that I was able to pick up some other students for private lessons where I was able to charge a higher rate and support myself.  I eventually taught at another small school in Antigua, Guatemala. It is very easy to find teaching positions in Guatemala, but you should look around and find a good supportive situation where the administration values learner-centered teaching.  
     After teaching in Guatemala for three months, I returned to the U.S. where I filled in for an ESL instructor at a private school in RI.  When she returned, I taught in an afterschool program for Latino children that was part of a larger family literacy program.  I didn’t have a background in teaching for increased literacy, but I was still able to rely on what I had learned from teaching EFL as a guide for working with children in an educational setting.  I relied on many of the learner-centered techniques that I had learned through the TESOL course.  
     I decided to apply for my masters at SIT because I had liked the TESOL course so much.  I shifted my focus away from teaching, and enrolled in the Program in Intercultural Service, Leadership, and Management.  Teaching English helped me to define a broader interest in working with intercultural populations in the area of social justice."  

--Elise McCaffrey,SIT TESOL Graduate, Costa Rica, June 2004